May 10 REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021
Searches to buy and lease commercial property returned to positive growth last week and remain well above last year’s levels.
‘For sale’ searches on realcommercial.com.au increased by 0.5% over the past week, with strong growth in South Australia outweighing falls in some of the other states. Compared to last year’s levels, buy searches are 37.3% higher
Searches to buy commercial property displayed significant variation by state over the week. South Australia (12.4%) recorded the largest rise over the week, with search volumes also up in Tasmania (2.5%) and Victoria (2.4%).
The Australian Capital Territory, in contrast, saw buy searches down 11.9% last week. Other states recording a decline were The Northern Territory (-4%), New South Wales (-3.5%) and Queensland (-3%).
Compared to 12 months ago, however, buy search volumes are at or above 25% higher in every state, with the Australian Capital Territory (37.6%) and South Australia (37.4%) leading the pack.
‘For lease’ searches on realcommercial.com.au rose by 2.7% last week driven by positive growth in most states. Search volumes are now 26.8% higher than at the same time last year.
As with the buy category, South Australia recorded the strongest growth in ‘For lease’ searches over the past week, at 13.4%. Western Australia and Victoria followed, at 2.3% and 1.8% respectively.
Comparing year-on-year, lease search volumes are up in every state, with the strongest growth seen in Western Australia (22.9%) and Victoria (22.5%).
The Australian Capital Territory has seen the weakest 12-month growth in lease searches, up just 7.1%. This can be attributed to the strength of Canberra’s economy last year which provided some resilience to its commercial property sectors.
The strength of Australia’s economic recovery is continuing to outpace expectations. This, combined with continued low COVID-19 case numbers in Australia, is supporting confidence and enabling businesses to make decisions about their property requirements.
